Philippines Phinally!

After smooth sailing on our Friday at sea, we arrived at Manila, Philippines on Saturday.  We'd not been to the Philippines before and we were excited to phinally get there.  It represents country number 95 for us.  I think that next year we will hit 100.

In the port, there were 2 French naval vessels.

We did the Oceania Charms of Old Manila excursion which gave us a nice overview of the history of the city and of the Philippines.  But, there were a couple of glitches on the excursion.  For starters, the excursion was about an hour late getting going due to issues with getting the buses into the port area.  When we phinally got going, we found that our guide spoke English nearly perfectly, almost too perfect as I'll explain later.

The first stop was at the park with a monument to Jose Rizal, the national hero for the Philippines.  I won't bore you with the details (as our guide did) and only say that he was a writer and polymath who was executed by the Spanish colonial government.

The next stop was at the historic Fort Santiago.  I'll leave the research to you, Dear Reader, and just put in a few photos.

After the tour of the fort, it was time for shopping (which we didn't) and time for refreshments (which we did).

Here's where things got further screwed up.  When we were due to head back to the bus, our guide came up 2 short on her head count.  After multiple attempts to arrive at the right number, she led us back to the bus.  Still 2 short, she headed back to the fort to try to find the missing 2 people.  We wound up sitting on the bus for 45 minutes before she gave up and returned to the bus.  Bad!  Talking to the Ivan in Destinations, he said that she should have only waited 10 or 20 minutes.  And, the missing couple took a taxi back without telling anyone.

Next up was the Saint Augustin Church and Museum.  The guide from the museum toured us around but, by this time, I was in a state of information overload so I just wandered around myself.

The highlight of the church was the wedding that was in progress when we got there.  Apparently, there are six weddings a week at the church and 3 that day.  We couldn't get into the church but were able to get some photos of the wedding.

The final stop was at the historic Manila Hotel where we had 15 minutes to do a walk around.

Our impression of Manila is that it's an old, busy city.

The issues with the tour were obviously disappointing.  Our guide was very nice but she just provided too much information and, I think, did not read the group well.  And, of course, the delays really left a bad taste.

Today, Sunday, we are anchored off of Boracay Island, Philippines.  As we sailed in, we saw one of the most interesting pilot boats ever.

Boracay is supposed to be a renowned beach area.  Well, the morning started with a good shower.  And it was windy, so windy that the ship had to limit tender operations.  Our plan was to walk around and hit a beach but that may not happen.  We'll see if they are able to get smooth tender service going.  In the meantime, we're enjoying a relaxing morning on our veranda.

And, as I just finished writing this, Cruise Director Sammie announced that they are suspending tender operations and will just be getting people already on shore, back to the ship.  No surprise.  But, we will have to complain to GM Emma that, the only reason we took this 24 day cruise was to go to Boracay Island!  This is a standing joke 😉.

Well, it's approaching 3:30 pm and it's safe to say that we will not be going ashore.  They say that life's a beach, but I guess not today.

Kapayapaan at pagpapala,

Linda and Larry